The testing / exam period is under way and practicing questions can be such a tedious process, but it doesn't always have to be! With a little bit of digging around for some classic old games, you can introduce some some fun and engaging ways to practice test questions in your lessons!

All you will need are some old games of Jenga or Kerplunk! I'm sure you could dig around your basements, car boot sales or even ask around for some old games people might have lying around and are no longer using. Alternatively you can click the images below to get some brand spanking new ones if your school has the budget! They'll definitely be an investment for you.

You will need about 5-15 games depending on how many students in your class and what size groups you would like them working in. I've found groups of 4 or 5 work great, so a set of 5-6 games is usually more than enough.

Here's how to play. Come up with a long list of questions related to the topic you are studying, or for extra challenge, you could even ask your students to create the questions themselves and give them to another group to answer.

Then you need to number the Jenga blocks and Kerplunk sticks (you could add a sticker to the ends of the sticks to make this easier). 

The way it works is simple, students work in groups to play the game as normal, but every time they successfully withdraw a Jenga block or Kerplunk stick without causing the crash, they look at the number they have withdrawn and answer the correlating question on their list! Suddenly, answering those boring test questions has become fun?!

You can easily add your own rules and winners where they keep score of how many questions were answered successfully, or students miss a turn if marbles come down / the Jenga tower falls etc, the list is endless! 

Believe me, your students will absolutely have a whale of a time in your lessons and they'll be having so much fun they won't even realize they are studying for a test!

So there you have it, testing prep for teens - made fun! If you have a go at this in your lessons, let me know how you got on in the comments below!

If you're a teacher and you sell your resources online too, you need to ensure that you use photos or clip art (paid or free) that permit commercial use.I have made lots of clip art for commercial use which are a hit with my students, however, sometimes there's nothing like a nice photograph in your resources as well! There are plenty of places you can purchase great photographs, but if you want to try some free ones first, I have collated some awesome photographs from some of the best sites I have found that contain copyright free photographs for commercial use. This edition is all about the desk and office, I'll post more collections I find in the future as well - enjoy!

I hope you find some inspiration from these photographs for use in your personal or commercial teaching resources! Be sure to follow me to get updated on new photograph collections as well as other teaching ideas.

Recently I have been teaching my 7th graders about Cyber Bullying - it's sad that so many of them have already experienced cyber bullying over social media. I think they're just so young to be dealing with the pain that peoples' mean words can cause to their little hearts. I'm really glad to be teaching them about this so I can help give them the skills to deal with it, as it is a serious issue that is only getting worse.

I used the discussion cards from my Anti Cyber Bullying Activities resource with them this week, and one of the discussion points was about whether people have a right to say what they want on the internet. It caused quite the debate!

Ultimately, after some discussion, they determined that people might have a 'legal right' but they don't have a 'moral' one... such smart kids! So, seeing as we can't control what people say, we have to control how we respond. 

There's a video that went viral yesterday and has already received 2 million views in 24 hours. I think it is a fantastic tool in demonstrating to students an effective way of dealing with other peoples' mean comments. It is Barack Obama responding to #MeanTweets about himself, check it out:

I believe it sends an important message to students that even Barack Obama is a victim of cyber bullying, however the way he handles the mean comments is inspiring and he doesn't act like a "victim" at all, which is key!

You can use these prompts below with your students after watching the video, to encourage them to reflect and learn from Obama's winning technique!

• How does Barack Obama deal with the mean things said about him?
• What benefit does humor have when reading mean comments?
• Why do you think these comments don't seem to upset him?
• Why do you think he doesn't defend himself or his actions?
• Why do you think silence is often a powerful response?
• How would you feel if you had to read lots of mean things said about you?
• What effect would it have on Barack Obama if he got really upset about all the mean things said about him?
• How can you use Barack Obama's attitude the next time you read or hear something mean about you?

You could even pause the video and ask them to predict how he will respond after he reads each tweet out, or think about how they would respond if they were in his shoes - that would be really interesting to discuss and compare to what he actually says!

Jimmy Kimmel's channel has so many other Mean Tweets episodes with other celebrities that your students might enjoy and relate to (tip: proof watch them first!) You can use the prompts above to spark a really valuable discussion with any of them!

If you want to use my Anti Cyber Bullying Activities resource in your lessons which effectively compliments this activity, you can check it out by clicking either of the images below:

I hope you find this idea useful with your students. If you try it out, let me know how you got on in the comments below! Let's provide our young people with the skills to be resilient and deal with Cyber Bullying.